PEORIA, Ill. — New York and California are seeing a significant rise of COVID-19 cases, as a subvariant of Omicron keeps popping up.
Infectious Disease specialist Dr. Doug Kasper, with the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, says it’s becoming more clear that what’s driving up cases in the United States is this subvariant.
“But, what’s propagating this, is that the variant is escaping prior immunity response,” Kasper said.
Kasper told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show” this is distinctly different from the wave we saw in December and January in our area, and in much of the U.S.
Some individuals who had infection this winter are experiencing infection a second time, which would be a much more rapid time period of just a few months.
Kasper reiterates that your best defense against the virus, and symptoms if you were to become infected, is an up-to-date vaccination strategy.
“I say that a little differently than I said in the past, because what we’re seeing with some of these Omicron sub lineages is that the effectiveness of the vaccine for preventing symptoms continues to go
down,” Kasper said.
Effectiveness of the vaccines remains somewhere above 80% for symptoms, but much higher for severe effects, according to Kasper.
Hospitalizations remain lower, he adds, some of that having to do with long-term immunity.
